268 The Wilder7iess Httnter. 



various shades. It is not a tree climber, and the fore-claws 

 are very long, much longer than the hinder ones. It is 

 found from the great plains west of the Mississippi to the 

 Pacific coast. This bear inhabits indifferently lowland and 

 mountain ; the deep woods, and the barren plains where 

 the only cover is the stunted growth fringing the streams. 

 These two types are very distinct in every way, and their 

 differences are not at all dependent upon mere geographical 

 considerations ; for they are often found in the same dis- 

 trict. Thus I found them both in the Bighorn Mountains, 

 each type being in extreme form, while the specimens I shot 

 showed no trace of intergradation. The huge grissled, 

 long-clawed beast, and its little glossy-coated, short-clawed, 

 tree-climbing brother roamed over exactly the same coun- 

 try in those mountains ; but they were as distinct in 

 habits, and mixed as little together as moose and caribou. 

 On the other hand, when a sufficient number of bears, 

 from widely separated regions are examined, the various 

 distinguishing marks are found to be inconstant and to 

 show a tendency — exactly how strong I cannot say — to 

 fade into one another. The differentiation of the two 

 species seems to be as yet scarcely completed ; there are 

 more or less imperfect connecting links, and as regards 

 the grisly it almost seems as if the specific characters were 

 still unstable. In the far northwest, in the basin of 

 the Columbia, the "black" bear is as often brown as any 

 other color ; and I have seen the skins of two cubs, one 

 black and one brown, which were shot when following the 

 same dam. When these brown bears have coarser hair 

 than usual their skins are with difficulty to be distinguished 



